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Sunday, June 26, 2011

Kindness of Strangers

If anyone asked what I did today, I'd probably tell them how I worked in my garden & painted patio chairs a sweet avocado color. The details I'd be less likely to offer up was how I spent a ridiculous amount of time on facebook looking through wedding photos of people I know. It's just one of those days where I've let myself wallow a bit, & with each new wedding that's not my own I turn a little more into those romantic-comedy-supporting-role-characters I never wanted to be... you know the girl, the one who rates the happiness of her life by comparison to the milestones of others. In my mind I can't stand that girl, but on days like today I am that girl.

I know this falls a little outside the parameters of what this blog is supposed to be... "the things that spark my fire"... but you guys have always been so kind when I need a day to express how the fire is starting to flicker. But just wait for it, the story comes around.

So I'm going about my day in this funk & I start cataloging all the ridiculous, fictional reasons why I don't have any wedding photos of my own to overflow people's newsfeeds in facebook. This is what I like to call a bad idea. It will only take you further & further into a funk until you're a puddle.

It would take a force bigger than me to break up this downward spiral....
& that's exactly what happened.
Twice.

Two strangers, at separate times, on their own accord, hours apart... stopped me today just to tell me I was beautiful. TWO. One a young guy at the coffee shop who as I was walking out the door announced "You have such a beautiful smile. I just had to tell you that". The other an older middle eastern gentleman as I left the grocery store still dirty from gardening stopped to say "You are a very beautiful woman. God bless you, Miss."

Are you kidding me?! Is there a sign strapped to me that says "feeling insecure & self-destructive"? I don't know what their motivations were or why today instead of any other day, but they were perfectly timed little jewels of my day. It was the last thing I believed about myself & exactly what I needed to hear. And I'm about to go to bed feeling a lot better about everything just because 2 stranger took the time to say something nice.